MOHUN (MOUN), William

The identity of the man who represented Launceston in November 1449 cannot be established with absolute certainty, as there were at least two men of this name active in the south-west at the time.4 The second William Mohun active in Hen. VI’s reign lived at Puslinch in Newton Ferrers (Devon) and was a son of John Mohun of Puslinch, who d. bef. 1427. This William married twice, his second wife being Margaret, da. of Robert Blerok, and wid. of Nicholas Tredeneck of Tredinnick in St. Breock, Cornw. He held lands at Tredinnick, ‘Trewolsta’, ‘Lanffron’ in Cornw. and Puslinch, Router and Torre in Devon, and it was probably he who was assessed at £6 p.a. for the income tax of 1451. He attested parlty. elections for Devon in 1429, and (alongside the Launceston MP) Cornw. in 1442, as well as possibly others. He died on 23 May 1471, survived by his second wife and 2 da.: Margaret, wife of David Tregorrick and Elizabeth wife of John Upton: CP40/782, rot. 410d; C219/14/1; 15/2; E179/87/92; C140/37/33; C1/43/49; 586/17; Plymouth and West Devon RO, Yonge mss, 107/22, 23, 25, 38, 385, 386, 631, 641, 648. It may have been this William who represented Truro in Parliament in Mar. 1416, for the man of this name who had been betrothed to Idonea Trevarthian in about 1385 had died childless by 1411 at the latest, if that marriage ever took place, and the later Launceston MP seems an unlikely candidate on chronological grounds: The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 797; CAD, v. A10546; C138/43/81. It is however probable that the MP, called ‘Mouns’ in the sheriff’s return and ‘Mounce’ in the borough steward’s account, should be identified with William Mohun of Bodinnick, an esquire of ancient lineage with landholdings throughout Cornwall. The Mohuns of Bodinnick claimed descent from the more distinguished Mohuns of Dunster, and a later family tradition had it that an early 14th-century ancestor, Sir Reynold Mohun of Dunster, had first acquired property at the family’s Cornish seat through a marriage to Elizabeth Fitzwilliam, which had resulted from a chance encounter brought about by a misdirected hawk.5 Maxwell Lyte, ii. 477. Whatever the truth of the matter, it was left to Sir Reynold’s son and heir, John,6 CP40/461, rot. 101. to secure the family’s position in the far south-west by forging ties among the more important Cornish gentry.7 The identity of John Mohun’s wife (or wives) is uncertain. Vivian supposed her to have been a St. Aubyn by birth, and gives her Christian name as Joan, but by 1365 John was married to Isabel, wid. of Thomas Prideaux, who survived him and in her widowhood was raped and abducted by Sir Henry Ilcombe†, whom she subsequently married: Cornw. RO, Edgcombe mss, ME712/1; Vivian, 324; The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 472-3; Maxwell-Lyte, ii. 479. In the process, John was drawn into a long-running dispute between the Eyr and Trevarthian families, but ostensibly turned the matter to his family’s advantage by agreeing to marry his two sons to a daughter of each party. As John Mohun’s son William died young, the Mohuns ultimately failed to secure the lands of Sir John Trevarthian†, which passed instead to the Reskymer family. John’s other son, Thomas, however, lived to secure the estates of his wife, Isabel Eyr, for his descendants.8 C138/43/81; C1/69/44-45; CP40/615, rot. 592; CIPM, xviii. 322; The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 658; JUST1/129/8, rots. 1-3. The full extent of the estate eventually assembled by the Mohuns is uncertain, but it included the manors of Bodinnick, Penfentineow (in Fowey), Arwothal (in Perranarwothal), Amble (in St. Kew), ‘Trewolsick’, ‘Trebethowe’ and ‘Tregradek’, as well as lands in Bodmin and elsewhere in Cornwall, holdings which were later said to be worth in excess of £40 p.a., although when assessed for taxation purposes in 1451 Thomas Mohun claimed to have an annual income of no more than £13.9 E306/9/5; E179/87/92.

The date of William’s birth is uncertain, but his parents were married by 1400, and he seems to have been of full age by the 1420s. It is just possible that it was he who alongside his father was accused of assaulting one John Andrewe at St. Minver in 1414,10 CP40/632, rot. 420. and it is certainly likely that that it was he who attested the Cornish shire elections of May 1421 and 1427. He may have been drawn into the squabble with the Trevarthians and their kin at an early date, for in the autumn of 1430 the Cornish bench heard how with the assistance of Henry Treglystyn and a retinue of servants, and with the full knowledge and approval of his mother, he had driven away oxen belonging to Sir William Bodrugan* from Restronguet in the dead of night. The lawsuit came to nothing, for in Easter term 1431 Mohun and Treglystyn were cleared by a jury in the court of King’s bench (although litigation over the same issue continued in the court of common pleas),11 KB27/679, rex rot. 5; CP40/681, rot. 326d; 683, rot. 327. and 18 months later Mohun himself appeared at Westminster alongside Peter Gerveys* as surety for one John Trewothnowe, who was appealing a group of Cornish gentry of maiming him.12 KB27/686, rot. 63d.

In 1442 Mohun once more attended the Cornish shire elections, and added his seal to the electoral indenture,13 C219/15/2. but while his father was still alive he was not otherwise called upon to play any part in the government of his native county. His election to Parliament in 1449 by the burgesses of Launceston, a borough with which he had no known ties, may thus have owed something to the difficulties experienced by many boroughs in finding men willing to travel to Westminster in turbulent times for an affordable rate of pay. The services of Mohun and his colleague, the lawyer Thomas Lymbery*, came at a bargain rate, for each was paid a mere 20s. in wages for his attendance at the three sessions, held at London, Westminster and Leicester and extending into the spring of 1450.14 Cornw. RO, Launceston bor. recs., B/Laus/139, f. 3d. Mohun may have had personal reasons for seeking election: in mid May a writ of sub poena was issued at suit of John Chedworth, soon to be bishop of Lincoln, in a now obscure cause, and although the two men reached an agreement that same summer, William’s election in the previous autumn may have been intended to protect him from further trouble at the hands of the influential cleric.15 C253/30/20. Otherwise, there is no suggestion that Mohun distinguished himself in the Commons, but his spell at Westminster had a more important outcome in acquainting him with Sir Hugh Courtenay* of Boconnoc, one of the Cornish knights of the shire, whose daughter Isabel his son and heir would later marry.16 Vivian, 324; Maxwell-Lyte, ii. 480-1.

Few other details of Mohun’s career have been discovered. He generally seems to have been on amicable terms with his neighbours for whom he occasionally attested deeds,17 Cornw. RO, Arundell mss, AR1/811; CCR, 1429-35, p. 111; CAD, iv. A9951. and it was probably he, rather than his namesake of Devon, who attested the Cornish election indentures of 1467.18 C219/17/1. In the spring of 1451 a disagreement with some local peasants over pasture rights at ‘Chivalscurrant’ temporarily interrupted this sedate lifestyle, for the irate owners of the grassland concerned were not content simply to seize Mohun’s offending cattle, but waylaid and confronted their owner directly, at least for a time causing him serious concerns for his safety, as he complained to the King’s justices at Westminster.19 CP40/765, rot. 109. In a similar vein, in early 1459 the justices of common pleas heard that Mohun for his part had waylaid and a assaulted a local yeoman at Bodinnick with an armed following.20 CP40/792, rot. 249.

The date of Mohun’s death remains obscure. He was still alive in the autumn of 1471 when he secured a royal pardon, possibly, but by no means certainly, on account of his actions during the Readeption.21 C67/48, m. 33. He was succeeded by his son, also called William, whose brother-in-law, Edward Courtenay, was elevated to the earldom of Devon by Henry VII, and who in his turn died in 1492.22 E306/9/5; Vivian, 324; Maxwell-Lyte, ii. 480-1.